Disentangling the relative roles of resource acquisition and allocation on animal feed efficiency: insights from a dairy cow model

Table 3 Outputs of model sensitivity analysis at the lifespan level

	Growth allocation			Lactation allocation			Basal acquisition			Lactation acquisition
	L	M	H	L	M	H	L	M	H	L	M	H
Longevity (years)	11.3	10.2	8.8	12.4	10.4	7.6	9.6	10.2	10.6	8.9	10.1	11.3
Productive longevity (years)	7.7	6.7	5.4	8.6	6.8	4.3	6.1	6.7	7.0	5.5	6.6	7.7
Number of lactations	8.8	7.6	6.1	9.9	7.8	4.9	6.9	7.6	8.0	6.3	7.5	8.7
Structural mass (kg)	425	446	468	446	446	446	406	446	487	446	446	446
Mean labile mass at drying (kg)	138	126	114	160	126	93	113	126	140	109	126	144
E_grow_life (10³ MJ)	10.24	10.79	11.37	10.83	10.81	10.76	9.80	10.81	11.80	10.69	10.80	10.92
E_balance_life (10³ MJ)	12.81	11.99	10.88	15.49	11.71	8.47	10.82	11.89	12.97	10.51	11.78	13.38
E_maintenance (% total energy expenditure)	48.30	49.09	50.44	49.58	48.73	49.51	49.70	49.22	48.91	50.64	49.14	48.05
E_mobilized_life (% total energy use)	1.59	1.63	1.70	1.82	1.52	1.57	1.64	1.63	1.63	1.74	1.59	1.58
E_milk_lactation (10³ MJ)	31.92	31.69	31.15	30.54	31.87	32.36	29.63	31.62	33.51	29.73	31.60	33.43

Outputs correspond to measures of longevity, productive longevity, number of lactations, structural mass, mean labile mass at drying-off and cumulative energy outputs for the period between birth and death for the three levels (L: low; M: medium and H: high) of the four genetic-scaling parameters that drive allocation to growth (G2S _GEN), allocation to lactation (Pc2S _GEN), basal acquisition (AcqB _GEN) and lactation acquisition (AcqL _GEN). Energy outputs are: cumulative energy for growth, total energy balance (difference between cumulative energy for reconstitution of reserves and cumulative energy mobilized), cumulative energy mobilized and average cumulative energy per lactation. Parameters values are in Additional file 1: Table S1

ISSN: 1297-9686